BEIJING — Eins, zwei, drei. In German, meaning one, two, three.
And for the German bobsled staff, it additionally means historical past.
Germany — unquestionably the world’s sliding-sports superpower — grew to become the primary nation to brush the medals in an Olympic bobsled race Tuesday, grabbing gold, silver and bronze within the two-man occasion on the Beijing Video games.
Francesco Friedrich is now a three-time Olympic gold medalist, teaming with Thorsten Margis to prevail in 3 minutes, 56.89 seconds. Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer have been second in 3:57.38, and Christoph Hafer and Matthias Sommer held on to complete third in 3:58.58.
Germany now has seven gold medals in sliding on the Beijing Video games, extra golds than any nation has ever grabbed from the bobsled, skeleton and luge occasions at any Olympics. The Germans have 12 medals altogether in sliding occasions up to now in Beijing — technically, one other file for any nation collaborating in sledding sports activities. East Germany and West Germany mixed for 12 medals on the 1976 Innsbruck Video games.
Switzerland was fourth, the staff of Michael Vogt and Sandro Michel ending in 3:58.83. Benjamin Maier and Markus Sammer have been fifth for Austria in 3:59.12. And Monaco grabbed sixth, its greatest end ever in an Olympic sporting occasion, with Rudy Rinaldi and Boris Useless finishing their 4 runs in 3:59.14.
However this night time belonged to Germany.
Similar to nearly all the things else has on the Yanqing Sliding Middle.
“They’re so far-off from everybody,” Rinaldi mentioned of the Germans. “We knew it on this sort of monitor. The longer the monitor, the much less now we have an opportunity. We knew it. They’re all good drivers, good pushers. … What they’re doing is loopy. Typically it might be unfair for us, however that is their sport.”
Germany gained gold in all 4 luge occasions, then gained gold in each skeleton occasions. The one time that “Das Deutschlandlied” hasn’t been the nationwide anthem taking part in when the flags celebrating a brand new Olympic champion are raised over the monitor was Monday, when Kaillie Humphries gained gold for the US within the monobob competitors.
There are two sliding occasions left within the Beijing Olympics — the ladies’s race that ends Saturday, and the four-man occasion that ends Sunday. Friedrich’s staff is the far-and-away favourite to win gold within the four-man race, defending champion Mariama Jamanka was the quickest in Day 1 of official ladies’s coaching Tuesday, and meaning Germany’s medal haul from the Olympic monitor most likely is not full.
Olympic rookie Frank DelDuca and brakeman Hakeem Abdul-Saboor have been the highest U.S. sled, ending thirteenth.
“I preferred the vitality we delivered to the beginning,” DelDuca mentioned. “You must do two race heats on two straight days. I assumed we had simply as a lot vitality on that final one, if no more, than the primary. It felt actually good. Hakeem had my again, we believed in one another, we left all the things on the market and I am actually grateful to be doing this.”
Hunter Church and brakeman Charlie Volker have been twenty seventh for the U.S., not qualifying for a fourth run. They struggled Monday in the course of the opening runs, however have been a lot cleaner taking place the monitor Tuesday and now take some constructive momentum into the four-man race that begins Saturday.
“It is enormous for confidence,” Volker mentioned.